Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

April 10, 2009 By Fausta

About those hairless chests…

… that I find so puzzling, Neo-neocon tries to find an explanation:

There’s been a growing trend towards male TV and movie stars who look boyish rather than manly. Leonardo DiCaprio is typical, a fine and wildly popular actor but a perennial babyface who appeared, in most of his early roles, to have been unable to get a beard going if his life depended on it (although now that he’s entering middle age, he seems to have developed the ability to coax out a modest amount of facial hair). I don’t get his sex appeal; I thought that in “Titanic” the lovely Kate Winslett looked as though she could have chewed him up and spit him out for breakfast—or at least told him to go out on the deck and play with the other kids.

One could also say that this is part of a general trend towards androgyny and away from sexual dimorphism, and perhaps one would be correct. But I’m not at all sure; I think the more basic trend is away from age (or even adulthood) and towards youth. It’s not so much that sexuality or even sexual dimorphism are being spurned, it’s growing old—or growing up.

This probably explains why the appeal of the lampiños escapes me. I’ve always liked men, not boys.

Neo continues,

Purposeful and self-inflicted chest hairlessness is also an example of the general tendency to tinker with the human body. Body-building, body-piercing, liposection, plastic surgery—every inch seem to be fair game for transformation and supposed improvement. Throughout history and across the world, people have always been willing to suffer for the sake of attractiveness; the only things that keeps morphing are the details. And if you think about it, shaving or waxing are a whole lot less traumatic than foot-binding or neck-stretching with rings, or so many of the manifold torments to which human beings have subjected themselves in the vain (in every sense of the word) pursuit of beauty.

And best yet, Neo has a photo of Giles Marini, a very fine-looking (albeit hairless) gentleman (and yet another opportunity for Rule #5 blogging),

gilesshower

Nice!

Check out Neo’s tango video while you’re at it.

PS
To the reader that asked,
No, I don’t like hairy backs.

UPDATE, Saturday 11 April
Ziva, commenting in FaceBook,

Fausta I’m with you. I don’t get it either. If a man is naturally smooth, that’s fine. Personally, I’ve always preferred hairy men. My husband (I hope he doesn’t see this!) is hairy. I don’t understand the sex appeal of these “boys.” I can’t help but think that it has something to do with the feminist agenda of marginalizing men in society. Look at how men are portrayed on TV shows now compared to the old days of say, Father Knows Best. In their fem world, they don’t need or want husbands, and children don’t need fathers. Boys are no longer permitted to be boys, especially in school, but are expected to behave like emasculated versions of their former selves. In their feminized world what could be more offensive than a macho hairy guy?

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Filed Under: fashion, manly men Tagged With: chest hair, Fausta's blog, Giles Marini

Comments

  1. Jenn Sierra says

    April 10, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    Amen, and amen!

    I think this started in our culture in the 60’s, when men began to look see if they could grow their hair longer than their girlfriends. It continued into the ’70’s, when the “unisex” outfits became popular, and culimnated in the ’80’s when young men and young women who were dating often went out dressed alike with matching bleached-blonde big-hair, unisex/shapeless over-sized clothing.

    Now there’s a trend toward neutralizing the genders even further, thanks to programs like the GLSEN’s “day of silence,” programs, and sex-ed curriculum developed by Planned Parenthood, and infused into every subject in the schools, encouraging children to avoid adhering to norms – They are now encouraged to explore whether they are gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning.

    Remember the song, “…Girls will be boys and boys will be girls; it’s a mixed up, muddle up, shook up world…” That was from 1970, and was talking about Soho, an extremely leftist area of Manahattan. It could not describe just about any high school in the U.S..

  2. Obi's Sister says

    April 10, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    Interesting topic, especially since we talked about it constantly on vacation. My boy, who is 17, shaves his chest and stomach already! Originally he said it was because he was tired of being teased in the locker room, but now, he says the “ladies like a smooth chest.” First of all, whoever is putting their hands on my boy better stop! Ahem… Come to think of it, we didn’t see a single chest hair on any of the high school/college boys we saw on the beach. I don’t get it either.

    (I wonder if they being conditioned (at school?) to avoid manly behavior so they can be more easily assimilated into the collective.)

    I called him downstairs to (hopefully further) discuss this phenomenon and had him read the two posts – know what he said? “Hey Mom, how’d she get a picture of me in the shower?” Sheesh. It never stops.

  3. Pat Patterson says

    April 11, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Not exactly a new trend;

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clark_gable_franchot_tone_mutiny_1.jpg

    http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/images/2008/06/01/johnny_weissmuller_maureen_osulliva.jpg

    http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa8/seanleone/2e1cf6b9-13b7-478a-bd9f-fe84475db2d.jpg

    http://imagecache.allposters.com/images/pic/LIFPOD/761811~Actor-Douglas-Fairbanks-Jr-Posters.jpg

    http://www.thebarrymichaels.com/bacall.jpg

    Obviously Lauren Bacall doesn’t have any chest hair either but I put the photo in for the simple reason that it’s Lauren Bacall for goodness sakes! And if you can’t guess who the third gentelmen is then he is just to sheikh for you.

  4. Pat Patterson says

    April 11, 2009 at 7:39 am

    Hardly a new trend;

    http://imagecache.allposters.com/images/pic/LIFPOD/761811~Actor-Douglas-Fairbanks-Jr-Posters.jpg

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Clark_gable_franchot_tone_mutiny_1.jpg

    http://www.vivid.ro/images/87/Johnny_Weismuller.jpg

    http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa8/seanleone/2e1cf6b9-13b7-478a-bd9f-fe84475db2d.jpg

    http://www.featuringdave.com/images/chicks/bacall1.jpg

    Shame on you if you don’t recognize the fourth movie star and for goodness sakes do I really need to explain a Lauren Bacall photo.

  5. Pat Patterson says

    April 11, 2009 at 10:07 am

    Sorry for the double comment. The first one simply vanished when it was submitted. I waited for about ten minutes and reposted because I was convinced, wrongly it appears, that it was not coming back.

  6. James says

    April 11, 2009 at 2:17 pm

    The trend towards hairlessness also applies to women as well. I’ve noticed more and more women have been shaved down below. Ladies, more guys like it when women look like women so leave it hairy…

  7. Frankie says

    April 29, 2009 at 3:30 pm

    It is all due to the feminist agenda! What is unfair is that now I can’t expect my gf to keep her legs silky smooth without her demanding things from me! Meanwhile, we see all these boys out there who couldn’t wait to please their girlfriends by being and acting like girlfriends themselves(sensitive, hairless, always building women’s egos,etc. This is crazy!! It is things like these that men must unite and become men again and dominate women as there’s no 50/50 here due to women themselves are not fair to begin with and to simply talk and talk to women would not solve the problem. Women have gone too far and disrespecting men. Men are strong and tough, don’t let women tell you otherwise.

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